Petra's cinnamon bun cake — less sugar and fat, full flavour
Moist, soft and full of cinnamon bun flavour — but with less sugar and fat. A cinnamon bun cake you simply have to try.
Cinnamon buns are a Swedish institution, but baking and shaping buns takes time. This cake gives you the same cinnamon swirl flavour in a single tray — and Petra has made it lighter by using a sweetener, a lighter spread and quark, which adds protein and keeps the cake moist.
Ingredients for 16 pieces
Cake:
- 75 g light spread (e.g. Lätta), room temperature
- 2 dl granulated sweetener
- 3 eggs
- 5 dl wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 2 dl plain quark
Cinnamon filling:
- 100 g light spread (e.g. Lätta), room temperature
- 1.5 dl granulated sweetener
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp light syrup
- 1 small pinch of salt
How to make it
- Heat the oven to 175 °C. Line a tin, about 20 × 30 cm, with baking paper.
- Whisk the light spread and sweetener with an electric whisk. Add the eggs one at a time and keep whisking.
- Mix flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt in a separate bowl.
- Gently fold the flour mixture and the quark into the batter with a spatula. Stir only until combined.
- Spread the batter evenly in the tin.
- Stir together the ingredients for the cinnamon filling with a spoon.
- Dollop the filling evenly over the batter. Drag a knife through filling and batter to create cinnamon swirls.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 20–25 minutes. Check with a skewer — the cake should be baked through but still moist.
- If the cake is still pale, move it a few steps higher in the oven for the last minutes to get more colour.
- Let cool and cut into about 16 pieces. Enjoy!
Why these swaps work
Sweetener replaces sugar in both the cake and the filling, while cinnamon and cardamom give the familiar bun flavour. Quark keeps the crumb moist and adds protein, and a lighter spread lowers the fat compared with butter.
The fika you love can stay — you just change a few building blocks.
You will find the printable version of this recipe at nutraware.com/pdf/recept_kanelbullekaka.pdf, and all our recipes are available inside the Nutraware app.
Want to put this into practice? Nutraware lets you photograph your meals for an instant nutritional analysis, track your habits and get personal coaching from an AI built on science. Be aware, feel great — and let the app do the counting for you.